This invention relates generally to improvements in packing plastic bottles into cases which are fed one adjacent the other from below the path of the bottles so as to be continuously mated with groups or slugs of the bottles at a load station.
More specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,805 shows a system for loading plastic bottles into inline cases or trays where the articles are guided by neck ring guides, and wherein rotating disks are provided with projecting circumferentially spaced lugs that move downwardly between the articles and more particularly between those articles which must be separated to accommodate the end panels of the inline cases. The packer disclosed in this 5,241,805 patent suffers from a disadvantage in that relatively soft plastic bottles of the type filled with any fluid beverages particularly cannot be conveniently accommodated by these rotating disks so as to create the desired spacing between the article rows for accommodating these adjacent end panels of the inline cases.
The more recent U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,186 represents an attempt to cure this problem, but the elimination of the neck ring guide in the packer disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,186 has led to inconsistent results with soft plastic product of the general type described in the preceding paragraph. Whereas the '560 patent discloses side guides that are adapted to engage shoulders in the plastic bottles rather than neck ring guides for engaging the necks of the bottles as in the '805 patent. It has been found advantageous to provide a packer capable of utilizing neck ring guides to control the movement of the bottles into the case after leaving the downstream edge of the inclined shelf across which the bottles move into the load station.
One purpose and aim of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a packer of the type which can be fitted either with the separator wheels disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,805, or that allows these wheels to be replaced with structure of the present invention, particularly with a structure that provides neck ring guides to control the path of the plastic bottles as they leave the dead plate or shelf and are gradually lowered into the packing case.
Another purpose and aim of the present invention is to provide an overhead flight bar structure that achieves positive control over the slug or group of plastic bottles being loaded into the end-to-end packing cases, and that allows withdrawal of the flight bars along a shallow inclined path that matches the angle of the path taken by the flight bars as they create the spaced slugs or groups of bottles to be loaded.